4. Exploring Playful Violence

Playful violence / irony is demonstrated in Pipilotti Rist's EVER IS OVER ALL.

I was intrigued by the effect that EVER IS OVER ALL had on me as a viewer. It made me laugh, it had me confused, and it left me with many questions. The piece could be described as surreal and uncanny due to the mixed messages.

I wanted to explore ideas that would evoke similar responses.

I liked the idea of combining weapons with nature (specifically flowers, inspired by P.R.) for several reasons:

1. Nature can be seen as weak and delicate (e.g. gentle flowers, harmless, beautiful), so it would be ridiculous to see weak parts of it used as powerful weapons. Viewers could laugh or be confused.

2. Nature is actually very powerful (earthquakes, tornados, volcanos, tsunamis, wind), so it would be interesting to display the weakest parts of nature (flowers / insects / animals / plants) as strongly as the most powerful parts, or vice versa.

3.  Many of the weakest parts of nature are secretly incredibly powerful, even if they are physically delicate (poisonous plants / mushrooms), which is an interesting idea that is often looked over. It might seem ridiculous, but a lot of delicate parts of nature actually SHOULD be feared.

I started sketching.

I enjoy using humans in my art, so I decided to explore this pose which explores a woman's expression.

I found that it explored femininity, as she appears helpless, in the hands of a man. Although feminism is not what I am trying to explore here, it is just another way of viewing the piece. 

I wanted to capture the moment that a "thug" is holding a "weapon" to a helpless woman's throat.

The flower is in place of a blade.

It is ironic and strange because all of the elements are familiar (flower, woman, hands) but the piece is still surreal and uncanny.



The UNCANNY is something that I would like to explore, because it is fitting to the type of art that I enjoy creating, and I find that it brings many questions to the table of both the creator and the viewer.




The next sketch I created was more industrial, and more blatantly metaphorical than the image above. The piece is almost half and half - harsh and gentle - artificial and natural. It is split in two, which could almost be seen as cliche.

When viewed, an older male viewer said that it reminded him of a period in the 1960's, where hippies would protest by placing flowers in the barrels of policemen's guns. 

I enjoyed this metaphor because of the idea of gentle violence, again, or peaceful protest.

Although, I wanted to return to using humans in my work, and I found inspiration in Pipilotti's use of projection / shadows.

I found the idea of using silhouettes interesting, because it removes the identity from the human.

Also, it does not subtract from the busy background, and gives the piece multiple dimensions, multiple features to look at and analyse.

I attempted to combine all of the features above (playful violence, nature, vibrant colour and silhouettes) into the piece below.

I took inspiration from EVER IS OVER ALL.

The silhouette is of a girl, swinging a flower in order to smash a screen of glass.

I projected this piece onto a large white wall, and received critique and comments from my peers.

Discovery and development:

I am interested in keeping digital, and possibly projecting pieces of art to retain the digital quality. Digital pieces do not look quite as successful when printed, unless they are printed professionally, which I cannot afford. Also, the projection ties back in with Pipilotti's use of projection, and allows the possibility of shadows from viewer integration.

I will be experimenting further with SILHOUETTES, and will be exploring the work of Kara Walker.

3. Pipilotti Rist EVER IS OVER ALL Analysis

Ever Is Over All

Ever Is Over All is the first Pipilotti Rist piece that I had the pleasure of seeing.

The blend of irony, nature and comedy immediately gripped me.

The piece is surreal. The video is in slow motion, alongside an eerie, captivating soundtrack created by Rist herself. The videos are projected onto a wall corner, meaning that it is not perfectly aligned, and the right half of the imagery spills over onto the floor, which makes it look offset, surreal and “wrong”. There is an air of uncertainty about the piece from first glance.

As the piece progresses, we see an incredibly feminine woman appearing very happy and cheerful, holding one of the flowers in the opposite panel like a baseball bat. She uses the flower to smash the windows of cars as she passes by, like a weapon.

This is a sudden shock, which could be seen as confusing or amusing / entertaining.

Viewers would not have expected violence, let alone with a flower (flowers are usually delicate and gentle, but here, it is strong enough to break windows).

The woman appeared to be equally gentle and innocent, until the point that she turns to violence.

There is a sense of irony behind the fact that something so gentle can cause such casual destruction, and then continue as if nothing was ever amiss.

This sense of shock and surrealism is supported by the way that a female policewoman observes the woman vandalising cars, but walks past her with a big smile on her face, and even nods hello. This is the point that viewers realise that this video portrays an alternate universe, where things may work oppositely to expected. On the other half of the projection, flowers fill the screen, innocent, still and natural.

I think that this art piece is incredibly powerful due to the conflicting messages, that cause viewers to question what they know and understand about what they are seeing.

This piece could be described as uncanny.

I am interested in exploring themes of nature, and irony. Pipilotti's use of playful violence is something I would like to explore.

2. Pipilotti Rist

Pipilotti Rist is an installation artist from Switzerland. She works with video, film and moving imagery to create incredible, strongly impacting pieces of art that are often large scale and interactive.

I came across her after being shown “Ever Is Over All”, a piece of art featuring projections of a woman smashing car windows with a flower, which is simultaneously ridiculous and gripping.

I am in love with Rist’s use of colour. Each and every one of her pieces features vivid colour, and many of them features influences of nature, such as flowers and outer-space.

Exploring Rist + analysis + comparing

Pipilotti Rist is an installation artist.

I am not an installation artist, and installation is not something that I wish to explore, although I feel that I can draw inspiration from Pipilotti’s work which I can translate into 2D works.

Rist is adventurous with her use of colour.  Colour is important in my own work, although I think that there is a fine line between vivid colours being seen as effective, or childish. (I think that this is a misconception in the art world, as every colour can individually be used to evoke different emotions e.g red for passion / anger).

I feel that Rist’s work is unapologetically vivid, bright and full of life and personality. Personally, when I observe her work, I feel happiness and curiosity. Her pieces are large scale, but they are not daunting or dominant. They are welcoming, so people walk in and around them.

There is a desire to be in and amongst the colours and patterns, especially due to the fact that most of Pipilotti’s work is installation. Viewers can approach and become part of the work, by lending their own figures and creating shadows.

I am intrigued by Pipilotti’s use of projection. The shadows of audience members can alter the piece altogether. See below.

Without human interaction, the image would be nowhere near as strong. I am interested by the silhouette formed.

1. Brainstorming

I begun this project with a mindmap exploring my interests, to try and find a starting point.

Nature is often heavily involved in my work, so I explored it in detail. See below.